


two strangers learn to fall in love again

by melodypond_thewomanwhomarriedme



Series: doctor/river ficlets :) [2]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Darillium, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Idiots in Love, Post-Episode: 2015 Xmas The Husbands of River Song, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:40:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27877745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melodypond_thewomanwhomarriedme/pseuds/melodypond_thewomanwhomarriedme
Summary: “I need to show you something,” the Doctor says vaguely.River’s eyebrows furrow in curiosity as she stands and exits her office. “You haven’t broken anything, have you?”
Relationships: The Doctor/River Song, Twelfth Doctor/River Song
Series: doctor/river ficlets :) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2033860
Comments: 14
Kudos: 55





	two strangers learn to fall in love again

**Author's Note:**

> title from Faithfully by Journey

“River, come here for a moment,” the Doctor calls from another room in their little cottage on Darillium, and River sighs as she looks mournfully at the papers she’s been trying to mark for the past week since they arrived here. 

“What is it now, Doctor?” she asks a little irritably. 

The Doctor has spent the entire week doing everything he can to stop her from doing her work. She knows if she doesn’t get it done soon she’ll just leave it to the last minute and before she knows it, she’ll be grading papers on the shuttle back to Luna. 

“I need to show you something,” the Doctor says vaguely.

River’s eyebrows furrow in curiosity as she stands and exits her office. “You haven’t broken anything, have you?” 

The Doctor doesn’t reply, and she quickens her pace down the hallway to their bedroom, and he looks at her with the most endearing, excited grin on his face. She can’t help but mirror his expression on her own face, leaning against the doorway and folding her arms. 

“Sweetie?” she asks. 

He beckons her over. “Come here and sit with me.”

She huffs as she pushes herself off the doorway. “I really should be doing my work, you know.”

“You’ve got 24 years to mark a few papers,” he waves away her concerns and pats the bedding beside him. “I promise I’ll leave you to yourself for a few hours tomorrow.”

“You better,” she warns, as she sits down beside him. “Now what?”

“Close your eyes and hold out your hands.” he instructs. 

She raises an eyebrow at him. In the last few days, she’s been learning all about this version of her husband. It quite amuses her how some parts of this body is so distinctly unique from the others. But when he says things like that - wanting to surprise her while grinning giddily like a toddler - she’s reminded so vividly of the face she married, the one that carried childlike excitement about everything everywhere. 

She smiles fondly as she complies, turning her body towards him as she closes her eyes and holds her hands out in front of her. 

She hears the sheets rustling and the Doctor placing something thick and hard in her hands, and before she can open her eyes he places his lips on her nose and whispers, “You can look now.”

She opens her eyes and looks at what he’s placed in her hands - a blue diary, but it isn’t hers. She can tell just from touching it, feeling it in her hands, that though it’s been cared for and cherished, she wasn’t the one to do it. 

“Your diary?” she asks him, frowning. 

He nods. “I was thinking - I know we’ve talked about what you said on the ship, but - if I could prove to you that Bow Tie really loved you- ”

“You don’t have to do this,” River says, shaking her head and looking at him with wide eyes. “I - I believe you, darling, of course I do -”

“I thought - our diaries are running out of pages - we could get new ones instead,” he says, as if worried that she won’t like his idea. “And you can keep this one to read, next time you’re on a spaceship somewhere and you miss me.” 

She keeps quiet for a while, staring at the diary in her hands. It looks as worn and torn as hers, but the Doctor doesn’t collect as many keepsakes to tuck between the pages as she does, and she doesn’t draw as much as him. The spine is dangerously close to falling apart and she opens it carefully to a random page. 

It’s a drawing of her. Except she’s sure it  _ isn’t  _ her, because she looks entirely too beautiful and radiant - and that  _ smile _ . She’s never seen that smile on her face before. 

“When was this?” she asks him. 

“Paris wedding, 19th century. After we ditched Amy and Rory,” he says, smiling fondly. “I couldn’t stop staring at you.”

She looks at him like he’d grown another head. “That’s not how I remember it. You were so distracted by all the art and the paintings that you barely glanced at me.”

“What? No, I distinctly remember doing all the romantic things in Paris with you -”

“Sweetie, you took me to the top of the Eiffel Tower and told me about the Cyberman invasion that was going to happen in 2055.”

“Is that not romantic?” he asks, blinking. 

“It was, it was  _ perfect _ , darling, but I - I’m just confused how you drew this when it seemed like you were barely paying attention?” 

“I always pay attention to you,” he says plainly, his own eyebrows furrowing in confusion as he stares at her. “I just talked so much so my mouth was occupied and I wouldn’t do anything embarrassing like snog you to death in front of people.”

“But - but I don’t - I’m not as - as - I’m not  _ like _ what you drew here.” she says, indicating the page. 

He looks down at the drawing and up at her again, his face examining every feature and determining the similarities and differences. His frown deepens. 

“Of course it’s you,” he says, pointing to the drawing. “Look, your hair - dead giveaway - and your eyes, and I remember that you’d bruised your cheek the day before I picked you up - that’s the scar here, see? And that was your face, you know, when we got married at the altar.”

“This was how I looked at the altar?” she repeats. 

He nods. “I remember because - well, I remember because I drew you at all our weddings. You can see the rest -” he flips haphazardly through the pages and she sees glimpses of every drawing he did of her, at all their weddings through time and space. “Here’s the one at Azulon, the beach wedding... and this is the one at Florizon, the garden wedding... and this one’s...”

The Doctor’s voice trails off as he identifies every wedding they’ve done, a drawing of her to accompany them, and River feels tears well in her eyes when she realises that  _ this _ is how her husband had seen her. He saw her smile and her devotion and her love for him, and he’d given his own in every picture he’d drawn, how he depicted his wife with such care. 

She interrupts him as he’s talking, leaning over and pressing her lips to his urgently. She brings her hand up to her face and caresses his cheek lightly as he kisses back, equally enthusiastic.

When they break apart, he holds her closer and smiles down at her. They breath into each other and she feels like so dreadfully lucky she could cry. 

“I didn’t realise you saw me that way,” she whispers. The Doctor frowns in confusion. “I - these are so beautiful, Doctor. Thank you.” 

The Doctor smiles, pressing a kiss to her hair. “Wait till you read the entries.”


End file.
